Japanese Customs plants 124g of hash in traveller's luggage to train dogs, then loses the hash

Pete sez, "Customs officials at Narita airport have lost 124 grams of hashish they planted in an unknowing traveler’s luggage to train drug sniffing dogs." Link (Thanks, Pete!)

[#1 posted by Blackbird , May 26, 2008 7:09 PM]

Don't worry. I found it.

124g to test the dogs????

[#2 posted by Jim O'Connell , May 26, 2008 7:16 PM]

What were they smoking...

[#3 posted by Spikeles , May 26, 2008 7:18 PM]

Too bad if the person ended up flying to Malaysia where it can be the DEATH PENALTY for smuggling drugs.

[#4 posted by pauldrye , May 26, 2008 7:40 PM]

Sounds like the custom official just developed an interesting way to get free drugs.

"Yeah, so I put a bunch of really good Dutch hash in a bag, and if anyone finds some -- er, I mean IT, yeah, it -- you should send it back to me. Also some Doritos."

[#5 posted by Nelson.C , May 26, 2008 7:52 PM]

Paul @4: Easier would be to say they put it in the case, but actually leave it in their locker for collection after shift end.

[#6 posted by pauldrye , May 26, 2008 7:56 PM]

@Nelson.C: Uh-uh. My way scores any other stray drugs that might be wandering around the system.

[#7 posted by mikelotus , May 26, 2008 8:20 PM]

maybe the traveler thought it was chocolate and ate it. And if its Japanese customs, that means they are coming into Japan, not flying to Malaysia. Someone in Japan is going to be partying.

[#8 posted by Anonymous , May 26, 2008 10:05 PM]

Time to upgrade the dogs...

[#9 posted by Trial Monkey , May 26, 2008 10:07 PM]

I keep seeing these stories about customs putting objects into passengers luggage, why don't the just put their own bag on the plane? It seems like they could avoid all the fallout by doing this and I doubt the dog would know the a fictional passenger wasn't on the flight.

Does the dog just get retrained or is this the end of its carer?

I thought dogs could detect a trace amount of whatever they were looking for, was this one so slow that they thought they needed to throw everything they had at it?

[#10 posted by Antinous , May 26, 2008 10:09 PM]

why don't the just put their own bag on the plane?

Perhaps if you had read the article...

[#11 posted by Aloisius , May 26, 2008 10:59 PM]

From the website:

Update: Police successfully located the passenger, who had been staying at a hotel in Tokyo. The passenger was unaware of the drugs, which have now been returned to Japanese authorities.

I'm not sure if I'm sad or happy that people are so honest.

[#12 posted by alisong76 , May 26, 2008 11:20 PM]

I misread that as 124kgs, and did the O.o face.

[#13 posted by seanfitz , May 26, 2008 11:23 PM]

He's lucky he didn't have his bags checked as he went out through customs.

Can you imagine having a customs officer pull the box out of your bag and ask: "What's this?"?!!! I'd have a heart attack!

I hope the authorities ensure that the officers stick to the rules in future and put the samples into test bags instead of traveler's bags like they are supposed to.

[#14 posted by arkizzle , May 27, 2008 12:00 AM]

Next time I go to Japan, I will hide my hash in drilled metal box specifically.

No officer, I've never seen it before in my life, wait.. doesn't it say Property of Narita Airport on the back? Weird, huh?

[#15 posted by Itsumishi , May 27, 2008 1:07 AM]

Yeah lots about this whole thing seem very very wrong.

As people pointed out 124grams of hash is quite a bit. Much more than any dog should need be able to find it.

Also yes the passenger was coming into Japan and therefore not likely to be executed for the drugs immediately. However what if they only had a night in Japan to then fly into any number of countries where the penalties are much higher? How the hell would you explain that?

[#16 posted by Cowicide , May 27, 2008 1:15 AM]

Probably went up in smoke.

[#17 posted by nick mun , May 27, 2008 1:56 AM]

i don't buy it. they don't have to plant it in an unknown traveler's luggage to train the dogs.
my guess is that the customs officials involved are now enjoying this misplaced hash.

[#18 posted by Argon , May 27, 2008 4:43 AM]

So the current situation seems that it's impossible to tell apart whether:

1) Corrupt customs crooks are smuggling dope.
2) Corrupt government crooks order corrupt customs crooks to plant fake evidence on undesirable persons.
3) Irresponsible customs idiots are recklessly incompetent, endanger innocent people's freedom and potentially ruin someone's life.

Nice thing is, should any occurrence of cases 1) or 2) get exposed, you can always fall back on case 3) and apologize. Go through the usual schtick, find it regrettable, pretend to investigate, promise to slap someone on the wrist, lay low until the subject dies down in the media. Move along, nothing to see. No need to change anything. Nothing to worry about, at least not for anyone of importance. Authorities are inherently trustworthy, didn't you know?

[#19 posted by ployntabs , May 27, 2008 4:57 AM]

I'm sooo wasted...

[#20 posted by JSG , May 27, 2008 5:00 AM]

My question is, if they were training dogs, why not go to the unclaimed luggage office, ask for six or eight bags, have a few officers in plain clothes or volunteers stand by the bags in a closed part of the airport and test the dogs there?

Do the Japanese airport security not understand the scientific method?

[#21 posted by hellhead , May 27, 2008 7:41 AM]

Next time I'm busted for it; 'I was training your dogs, man!'

[#22 posted by morcheeba , May 27, 2008 7:59 AM]

I have a friend who works at a company that makes advanced luggage screening machines (this info is a bit dated - ~1995). They wanted actual passenger-packed bags to use for testing, but couldn't get them. It turns out that one company has an exclusive contract to handle unclaimed baggage - they rifle through the bags first, removing all the valuables & disrupting the packing, before they'll hand them over to anyone else. I'd think the airport could get their hands on typical unclaimed bags, but it might not be as easy as it would seem.

[#23 posted by catbeller , May 28, 2008 8:25 AM]

Another reason not to fly. Our prison guards are admitting to planting contraband in our possessions.

How many other people are spending decades in prisons around the world - how many executed - because our "police" plant evidence just like this? How many families destroyed?

If our laws covered crimes that actually hurt people - instead of chemical crimes or thought crimes - it would be hard to plant an assault or a murder on a random individual, crimes with demonstrable damage. And let's not talk about circumstantial evidence, essentially making up a story to convince a jury without bothering to produce evidence to back it up.

But all they have to do is stick an ounce of a plant on your person or in your home when you're not there, and away you go to hell...

[#24 posted by dainel , June 1, 2008 9:48 AM]

Customs officials admitting to planting drugs in passengers' luggage for practice? Yeah, this is sure to inspire confidence. When you really catch somebody, how are we supposed to know you didn't plant it? Seeing as they admitted to doing this frequently, and knowing that they are not suppose to do this, a few people needs to be fired, if only for being stupid.